Greg Hinz On Politics

City inspector general zaps Aviation Department for cellphone 'waste'

Wanting its staff to keep in touch at fast-moving O'Hare International Airport, the city's Department of Aviation in 2006 and 2007 bought 150 special satellite-linked phones and spent tens of thousands of dollars a year on them.

There was only one problem, city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson says in a new report released today: The phones didn't work in places such as terminals, and most were never used.

At issue in the report is at least $171,000 in global positioning system contracts that Mr. Ferguson says was wasted by the department between 2006 and 2010, out of $248,000 spent on the tracking and communication devices in total.

"The technology did not work in airport terminals and did not meet the (department's) needs, yet the (department) continued to pay," Mr. Ferguson concludes. In fact, 105 of the 155 GPS-equipped cellphones purchased by the department never were used.

The report underlines that the bad expenditures covered the tenure of three department commissioners "and involved multiple employees from the top down."

The current commissioner, Rosemarie Andolino, wrote a letter pretty much confessing to the department's errors. The letter is attached to the report.

But Ms. Andolino said she took fast corrective steps when she heard about the findings, notably disconnecting GPS service for 122 cellphones and 13 vehicles last fall.

The IG recommended that the city review and update procedures to get better equipment and hold employees accountable. Ms. Andolino said she would do that.

The only silver lining to this report is that O'Hare operations receive no local taxpayer funds, only federal money and revenues from ticket taxes and the like.